Description:
BILL BECKLEY [1946 - ] American artist. The work of Bill Beckley, Pennsylvania born artist, is in the collections of the Smithsonian, MOMA, Guggenheim, Whitney, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery plus museums in England, France, Germany, Switzerland. He also has works in numerous private collections. OFFERED HERE: ORIGINAL mixed media on paper. Signed & dated 1974. Paper size approx. 11x 15 in., watercolor image size approx. 3.5 x 7 in. with text. Very good condition. RE: Titled "STOVE", the text recounts De Koonings' practice of getting started on a blank canvas. "I've read that De Kooning was afraid to look at a blank canvas. Sometimes to get started he would look around the room and fix on an object - a stove a table, a chair, and write the word "chair", for instance across the canvas so it wouldn't be blank anymore. At this time there were two groups of abstract expressionists. The other was more structured and probably the forerunners of minimalism and late conceptualism. I liked his group better although lately I have removed all the furniture from the studio, I kept the stove, and in the evenings when it is cold I sit in front of it to keep warm." (Inventory 14)